Mari Yasuda was clear about being asked a couple of days ago by the enormous gender gap in Japanese politics.
“It’s as if men became parliamentarians by birth right,” said Yasuda, who played a seat in the Japanese Parliament for the progressive Democratic Constitutional Party of Japan.
Of the 1,051 politicians who competed in the general elections on Sunday by 465 seats in the lower house, there were only 186 women.
In the last report on the Global Gender Gap of the World Economic Forum, Japan ranks 147 of 156 regarding the political empowerment of women.
We talked about a country in which until the last law approved to promote gender parity in these elections was proposed by a former minister to have more tour.
And he did not even succeed.
“I receive emails where they accuse me of lying down with powerful men to ascend in politics. Despite the signs that voters are more progressive than many of their representatives, the country’s policy has been immune to change,” said Yasuda.
Before the elections are convened and the lower house was dissolved, only 9.9% of the legislators were women.
On October 4, when Prime Minister Fumio Kishida appointed the government of him, among the 20 cabinet members there were only three ministers.
Making more women in Japanese High Policy is one of the messages launched by Kishida, which will continue in command of the Third World Economy after the victory of the Liberal Democratic Party (PLD).
Although the priority in the agenda of him is to launch a “new capitalism”, a blow of effect as they were the famous ‘Abenomics’ of Shinzo Abe.
Under that slogan, Kishida aims to “achieve a beneficial circle of growth and redistribution, the need for both the public and private sectors to play a role in achieving such objectives.”
Among the leader’s plans is also restarting nuclear power plants in a country still scared by Fukushima’s disaster.
Another fundamental focus for the future of Japan will be its role as power in the Pacific.
In the a few weeks that Kishida leads to command, who was Minister of Foreign Affairs with ABE has continued the strong alliance with the United States who left him predecessors.
Last week, for example, an attack group of US aircraft attack conducted joint exercises with a Japanese helicopter destroyer in the southern China Sea, days after China and Russia conclude the simulations in the region.
Disputes with China will be the ones that will mark the foreign governance policy.
Continue with the traditional low profile or imitate the dialectical aggressiveness of Washington to Beijing, that is the dilemma.
The East China Sea has been a focus of conflict between both countries for years.
Above all, by rocky and uninhabited islands called Senkaku, which are 1,900 kilometers southwest of Tokyo.
Controlled by Japan, Beijing, which baptized them as Diaoyu Islands, began to claim them in the 1990s after discovering that the islands had potential reserves of oil and natural gas.
Often, Tokyo says that Chinese fishing boats invade their waters, forcing the Japanese coastal guard to block them.
He has also denounced that China’s popular army warfare aircraft have surveiled the area in dispute.
“The security environment in Japan is becoming more difficult, we must counteract China by reinforcing the Coast Guard and improving coordination with the Army,” Kishida said in recent statements.
During the electoral campaign, diplomacy and national security have been a key issue, with the PLD calling for an increase in the defense spending of 2% of GDP, a diversion of the current investment of 1%.
“The ruler Party intends more solid cooperation with Australia, India, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the EU and Taiwan to promote the free and open policy of the INDO-Pacific, with the Japan Alliance and the United States as a cornerstone of the
Diplomacy of the country, “says the professor and political analyst Yoichi Shimada.
In a world that is increasingly pulling asia as a future – or imminent, according to what expert, political, economic and warlike epicenter, Japan is a fundamental piece of the board.
Fumio Kishida will continue to the helm to try to reactivate the economy with its “new capitalism”, fulfill environmental commitments and strengthen the front with the US.
It will be a policy carried by older men.
Because women will continue in the background.
